Katniss, who?
by VirginiaKnight
Summary: Peeta's story from when he was taken from the Second Quarter Quell and his tortures. I DO NOT OWN. ALL RIGHTS FOR TO SUZANNE COLLINS!


The jungle does brutality to my skin as I try to run to where I hear Katniss's voice. I'm already covered in Brutuss's blood and the vines and twigs whip my skin leaving stinging cuts. I'm almost there when I see one of her arrows fly up to the sky. I slow down my pace just a little and look up to see what she could be possibly shooting at it. That's when the sky erupts, the force field shatters and I'm knocked to the ground. Trees burst into flames and the earth rumbles and dirt erupts.

"Peeta!" I hear a voice shout. I'm still dazed on the ground. Laying there watching the arena's destruction. I see a hovercraft appear over the area Katniss was at. I stand up to see a claw pull up Katniss. I'm running again but then I'm pulled back forcefully.

It's Johanna. "Peeta this way. Trust me. C'mon!" She yells frantically pulling me deeper into the forest.

I jerk away. "But Katniss!" I yell to her. She stops in front of me a spins around to face me. Her face is frantic and pissed.

"She's fine!" Johanna hisses. "Now move! Or..." Out of nowhere a claw drops down snatches Johanna from her feet. She lets out a whimpered cry to run. Before my feet can process her request another claw is already snatching me up. I struggle to break free but there's no use my human strength is no match for the Capitol's machinery.

Inside the hovercraft Johanna's struggling with one of the Peacekeepers to jump out. One is hovering over me. "Where's Katniss!" I shout. Instead of answering me I recieve a brutal blow to my skull and I'm sucked into a black void.

* * *

><p>The first day I woke up in my capitol room. I ran to Katniss's room but she wasn't there.<p>

I walk to the dining room to find President Snow sitting at the table. I stop in my tracks.

"Peeta." he says coldly. "Please sit down." I hesitate for second before taking the furthest seat opposite from him.

"So Peeta. Tell me about Katniss and her plans."

I look at him confused. "I don't know what you are talking about."

He shakes his head as if disapproving. "Well let's refresh your memory." He takes a remote and a screen pops down from the ceiling. Where did that come from? He pushes play and it was the Quater Quell. "Watch." He says. "Closely."

We were silent till the end. I was the one who spoke. "So that wasn't your hovercraft?" I say slowly. "That picked up Katniss?"

He shakes his head no. He gets up walks to the seat closest to me. He smells oddly, like a man who has cheated death. "So, you knew nothing about the rebels plan. Haymitch never said anything?"

I shake my head no. "He never said anything and I highly doubt Katniss knew. She was just trying to figure out what Beetee was trying to do." I whisper.

He shakes his head disapproving again. "Katniss knew. She's been a rebel from the begininng. Now she has Panem in chaos." He says.

"No, Katniss wasn't. She would of told me!" I shout.

"Are you postive about that?" He asks. I take in his words and I realize I wasn't postive.

"Katniss wouldn't do it. I know she wouldn't." I sigh.

He gets up and walks to the door. "Believe what you want boy but the evidence is all there. She never loved you, she just used you."

I stood up and walked to him quickly. "You're wrong." I say trying to contain myself. He chuckles before he slips to the elevator. A couple of guards enter when the door opens then they have me by my arms and drag to the elevator.

They take me to the bottom floor. It's nothing but cold dusty cells. They throw me into me one and there's nothing but there some shackles and a couple pack of cards.

Snow appears behind the bars. "Think about what I have told you and what you have saw. Panem is in chaos. There are some clothes for you there, you have an interview in 30 minutes." He kneels down for a second picking up a stick. "If you don't want anything bad to happen. I suggest in your interview you order a cease fire."

"Or what you'll shackle me to the wall?" I say indicating the shackles.

He shrugs slightly. "Something like that." He smiles but it's cold. "Get dressed." he says again. "You have an interview."

I pull on the clothes that they left me and then start to pace in the cell. There are two guards watching me closely. Finally I become bored and start to build a house of cards with the packs of cards on the floor. Soon the guards open my cell kicking my house down that I just finally managed to build and lift me up off the ground and take me to the interview room.

* * *

><p>Caesar is there he gives me a small smile before walking on stage. A dress team comes up to me and does my hair. I try to listen to what Caesar is saying but all I can hear is explosions. They must be playing the Quater Quell tape again. Soon they lead my on stage and I sit in a chair across from Caesar.<p>

"So...Peeta. Welcome back!" Caesar says, without much enthusiam. I quickly push my thoughts away and put on the Peeta the capitol knew.

I smile slightly. "I bet you thought you'd done your last interview with me, Caesar. "

"I confess, I did, " says Caesar. "The night before the Quarter Quell... Well, who ever thought we'd see you again?"

"It wasn't part of my plan, that's for sure, " I say with a frown.

Caesar leans in to me a little. "I think it was clear to all of us what your plan was. To sacrifice yourself in the arena so that Katniss Everdeen and your child could survive. "

My stomach knots at the sound of her name. "That was it. Clear and simple. " My fingers trace the upholstered pattern on the arm of the chair, I think of what he was saying. It clicks for second. My tone darkens."But other people had plans as well."

"Why don't you tell us about that last night in the arena?" suggests Caesar. "Help us sort a few things out. "

I nod and think slowly; taking my time speaking. Thinking of the horrors I experienced. "That last night... To tell you about that last night... Well, first of all, you have to imagine how it felt in the arena. It was like being an insect trapped under a bowl filled with steaming air. And all around you, jungle... Green and alive and ticking. That giant clock ticking away your life. Every hour promising some new horror. You have to imagine that in the past two days, sixteen people have died-some of them defending you. At the rate things are going, the last eight will be dead by morning. Save one. The victor. And your plan is that it won't be you. "

I pause for a second letting the people take in my words. Also giving myself time to process what Katniss's motives were.

"Once you're in the arena, the rest of the world becomes very distant, " I continue. "All the people and things you loved or cared about almost cease to exist. The pink sky and the monsters in the jungle and the tributes who want your blood become your final reality, the only one that ever mattered. As bad as it makes you feel, you're going to have to do some killing, because in the arena, you only get one wish. And it's very costly. "

"It costs your life, " says Caesar.

"Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?" I say. "It costs everything you are. "

"Everything you are, " repeats Caesar quietly. A hush has fallen over the room, and I can feel it spreading across Panem. A nation leaning in toward its screens. Because no one has ever talked about what it's really like in the arena before.

I go on. "So you hold on to your wish. And that last night, yes, my wish was to save Katniss." As I continue, I know Snow's words couldn't be true, could they? "But even without knowing about the rebels, it didn't feel right. Everything was too complicated. I found myself regretting I hadn't run off with her earlier in the day, as she had suggested. But there was no getting out of it at that point. "

"You were too caught up in Beetee's plan to electrify the salt lake, " says Caesar.

"Too busy playing allies with the others. I should have never let them separate us!" I burst out regretting every decision I made. It dawns on me. "That's when I lost her."

"When you stayed at the lightning tree, and she and Johanna Mason took the coil of wire down to the water, " Caesar clarifies.

"I didn't want to!" I say in agitation. I was tired of Caesar reminding me of what I already knew and re-saw. "But I couldn't argue with Beetee without indicating we were about to break away from the alliance. When that wire was cut, everything just went insane. I can only remember bits and pieces. Trying to find her. Watching Brutus kill Chaff. Killing Brutus myself. I know she was calling my name. Then the lightning bolt hit the tree, and the force field around the arena... Blew out. "

"Katniss blew it out, Peeta, " says Caesar. "You've seen the footage. "

I become defensive. "She didn't know what she was doing. None of us could follow Beetee's plan. You can see her trying to figure out what to do with that wire, " I snap back.

"All right. It just looks suspicious, " says Caesar. "As if she was part of the rebels' plan all along. "

I'm on my feet now, leaning in to Caesar's face, hands locked on the arms of his chair. "Really? And was it part of her plan for Johanna to nearly kill her? For that electric shock to paralyze her? To trigger the bombing?" I'm yelling now. "She didn't know, Caesar! Neither of us knew anything except that we were trying to keep each other alive!"

Caesar places his hand on my chest in a gesture that's both self-protective and conciliatory. "Okay, Peeta, I believe you. "

"Okay. " I say withdrawing from Caesar, pulling back my hands, running them through my hair. I slump back in my chair, distraught.

Caesar waits a moment, studying me. "What about your mentor, Haymitch Abernathy?"

My face hardens. "I don't know what Haymitch knew. "

"Could he have been part of the conspiracy?" asks Caesar.

"He never mentioned it, " I say.

Caesar presses on. "What does your heart tell you?"

"That I shouldn't have trusted him, " I say. "That's all. "

Caesar pats my shoulder. "We can stop now if you want. "

"Was there more to discuss?" I say wryly.

"I was going to ask your thoughts on the war, but if you're too upset... " begins Caesar.

"Oh, I'm not too upset to answer that. " I take a deep breath and then look straight into the camera. "I want everyone watching-whether you're on the Capitol or the rebel side-to stop for just a moment and think about what this war could mean. For human beings. We almost went extinct fighting one another before. Now our numbers are even fewer. Our conditions more tenuous. Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off completely? In the hopes that-what? Some decent species will inherit the smoking remains of the earth?"

"I don't really... I'm not sure I'm following... " says Caesar.

"We can't fight one another, Caesar, " Peeta explains. "There won't be enough of us left to keep going. If everybody doesn't lay down their weapons-and I mean, as in very soon-it's all over, anyway. "

"So... You're calling for a cease-fire?" Caesar asks.

"Yes. I'm calling for a cease-fire, " I say tiredly. "Now why don't we ask the guards to take me back to my quarters so I can build another hundred card houses?"

Caesar turns to the camera. "All right. I think that wraps it up. So back to our regularly scheduled programming. "

* * *

><p>I'm taken off stage by the guards and met by Snow.<p>

"Good work, boy." He says. "We have a new quarter for you. Guards you know where." His voice is cold and menacing.

They lead me even further down the building and they open a several bolted door. The avox's are there and so is Johanna and Enobaria. Johanna looked horrible covered in bruises and soaking wet.

Another guard was electrucuting the avox girl. Her screams were nothing more but mangled gurgles. At the sight of me Johanna perked up she was shackled to the wall but still had some humor in her. "Peeta, lover boy! Looks like they have taken good care of you." Her outburst got her a blow to her arm and she struggled to kick him. I was lead away to another room where I was alone.

I must have not satisfied Snow.


End file.
